HARNESS THE POWER OF YOUR SUPER FUND TODAY

Many MySuper products and super funds do much more than just help you save for retirement. Most also offer insurance and financial planning, and some offer home loans, health insurance and shopping deals.

Key points

	Super funds do much more than just look after your superannuation. Most also offer insurance, financial advice, online account access, retirement products, home loans, non-super investments, access to direct shares and even shopping discounts.
	But their main job will still always be delivering long term investments.
	When choosing your super fund, look for funds with the best investment outcomes then worry about the extras.

The job of your MySuper product or super fund is making money for you and the other members. But super funds can do more for their members than just
that so you don't have to wait until you retire before you can start claiming something back.

They do this by setting up strategic partnerships and alliances with insurers, banks, financial planners, travel companies and other product providers. Some super funds have so many features it makes them almost one-stop-financial shops. The battle for your loyalty that this race has ignited is so intense that some funds are updating their list of product features and offerings nearly every month

Latest research

To find out what funds offer which extra features, Rainmaker analysed the incidence of over 50 individual features and benefits offerings across more than 500 superannuation and retirement products.

They found that the extra features funds now offer range from call centres to online account access, insurance, financial products like home loans, shopping rewards, social media presence and even shopping discounts like health insurance, travel deals and gym memberships.

But while features like being online, having a call centre, life insurance, financial planning services or retirement products are offered by almost every super fund, others features like shopping and travel discounts and general insurance are offered by only a few funds.

So the message is clear: not all funds offer everything so if there's something special you want, you have to compare your fund in detail.

This race to have lots of product features is why the average number of features offered by funds has increased year on year and now stands at over 20 with the feature types growing the fastest being technology based communications and those features that reflect increased member engagement in investments and information about your portfolios.

Big increases were also observed for super funds offering access to cash term deposits within investment choice menus, regular investment reports and online investment switching. This reflects the growing interaction between super funds and its members regarding how their assets are invested and managed, although these features can at times make funds seem unnecessarily complex.

These coupled with the increase in transaction functionality (e.g., EFT/BPAY contributions, online account access, apps for mobile devices) also reflect this increased technology focus notwithstanding it's still surprising how few super funds have their own smartphone apps.

However, not all features and benefits are valued equally by all members so just because a fund has lots of product features doesn't mean it's the best superannuation fund - recall that the most important thing for your fund will always be delivering the best investment outcomes that it can.

MDI options and life stage investing

While funds offer so many extra features, the ones that attract special attention now are Member Direct Investment (MDI) options, i.e., investment options that provide investors with direct access to the ASX 300 noting these options have now expanded into being mini platforms that include limited choices of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), term deposits and Listed Investment Companies (LIC).

Thirty percent of workplace funds offer these options with a relatively even split between not forprofit and retail funds. But more than 40% of funds now offer cash term deposits.

Investment switching

If you are a fund member who likes to switch investments, make sure to check for funds that offer unlimited switches, that promise to do it quickly or that at least give you a  reasonable number of free switches before they start charging you. Not all funds want you to switch investment choices too often so be careful to check the fineprint if this is a feature that's important to you.

Extra benefits and MySuper

If a member joins a direct low cost standalone MySuper product it is unlikely to offer many extra benefits. A member who wants access to many of these extra benefits should instead join a regular super fund that contains a MySuper option because the extra benefits are available across the fund even if the member uses only the MySuper option.